Hot springs, geysers, mudpots, steam vents....

With the arrival of summer and increasing amount of vacationers, we decided to go to Yellowstone before the summer crowds swelled. We only explored part of the Yellowstone southern loop, from West Yellowstone, to Old Faithful, and on to West Thumb, before turning around and heading back to the campsite. We will be here most of the summer, so we are not in a rush at all.

The drive from the West Yellowstone entrance is along the Madison River, which looked like it could be teeming with wildlife. We kept a look out, but didn't see anything. We went off to travel the Fire Hole Loop, a one-way road past lava flows that leads to a waterfall. It was really nice. We spotted a prairie hawk or an osprey, not sure. It had its back to us, and we aren't too good yet at identifying birds. ahhaha.

Madison River

Volcanic walls along the Fire Hole looop

Fire Hole Waterfall

Who's that handsome dude?

osprey or falcon?

more of the river and falls at Fire Hole

 Tom was checking out the wildflowers...ahhaha....he's been hanging around me too much! Anyway, the flowers are really nice!

pretty

On our way down Fountain Flat Drive to the parking area, we spotted a trumpeter swan in the river. We took a short hike through a section that seemed to be destroyed by fire, which led to several springs.

Trumpeter swan

Fountain Flat Drive

short hike to the springs

burned out forest...regrowing

The features of this part of Yellowstone are so different that it seems we are on another planet at times! Really. We traveled on to Fountain Paint Pot, a popular area in the park with a nice long boardwalk past the different hydrothermal features. It really is wild! As I overheard another tourist say..."you don't see this every day in your backyard". How true!

cool trail

lots of birds in these trees...need to look up too!

There are 4 hydrothermal features throughout Yellowstone: geysers, hot springs, mud pots and fumaroles. All of these features were represented here on the Fountain Paint Pot boardwalk trail in the Lower Geyser Basin. The water is boiling and there are signs everywhere warning of the danger of going off the boardwalk. There is, however, lots of buffalo poop and hoof prints near these hydrothermal features. It must feel good to stand near a hydrothermal feature when its cold out, and the buffalo know it.

All of the pictures below were taken at the Fountain Paint Pot trail, and it was hard for me to distinguish between a hot spring and a geyser (unless it was erupting)....so rather than mislabel anything....I will not label anything. All were fascinating in there own way. I especially love the mudpots! So cool.

 The colors are indescribably gorgeous (thanks to bacteria, by the way!) and some of the hot spring pools look like they would make great backyard or resort swimming pools. Maybe that's where the idea of swimming pools with organic shapes, rather than just rectangular shapes, came from...imitating nature here at Yellowstone. Well, these "pools" are boiling hot...so no swimming allowed! ahha.

To read a little more about the role of microbes in the color of hydrothermal features in Yellowstone, click here.

There are signs at many of the hydrothermal features throughout the park describing the role of bacteria and warning not to disturb the bacterial mat. Its nice to educate the public about "good" bacteria/microbes/biofilm/bacterial mats!! I'm wondering how the buffalo poop changes the communities/organic sources of the bacterial mat? Seriously. Personally, I have never worked with or studied thermophiles/extremophiles but I intend to read more about it and the methods used to study them. Isn't microbiology fascinating? The power of microbes!!

Then it was on to Midway Geyser Basin, where there is a boardwalk past two very interesting features: the Excelsior Geyser Crater, which looks just like a crater with a giant pool of steaming blue water in it...bubbling away, and the awesome Grand Prismatic, which is the largest hot spring in the park. This section was just incredibly awesome! The colors were just so vibrant and rich...again, thanks to thermophilic bacterial communities and minerals! 

bacterial mat flowing towards the river

awesome place!

looks just like a crater

with clear blue boiling water!

boiling away

Micro lesson in the next few pictures

fascinating!

flowers growing right alongside this geyser 

even the steam is colored

so awesome

bacterial mats

so beautiful-really!

are those hoofprints?

okay

other-wordly

amazing

pawprint in the bacterial mat near the boardwalk (mountain lion?)

so so cool-nature's art

biofilm/mat

micrograph of the bacterial mat

good description!

thermophiles

like a piece of art

this was soooo turquoise!

One more stop before reaching Old Faithful....Biscuit Basin is a short boardwalk trail around more hot springs and hydrothermal features. The biscuits are mineral deposits around the edges of some of the hot springs. I have to tell you, some of the edges of these hot springs had "biscuits" completely around them...resembling a lining of a pool. Nature is amazing, and we are smart to imitate some of these beautiful things that we observe.

bubbling away

look at that color

study in color

awesome hot spring

wouldn't this make a nice pool?

fascinating colors

see the "biscuits" on the edges?

more

this one's a movie (don't know how i did that! But hey....cool!)

big "biscuits"-mineral deposits

isn't that cool? 

Mustard Spring - check out the edges

a little bit of everything

Aren't the colors amazing? The other amazing thing to me is the different ecosystems right next to each other. Check out this last picture to see what I mean. Fascinating!

Okay, I took waaay too many pictures here, so I will end this post and start another one with the millions of pictures from Old Faithful area and West Thumb. Too be continued........